Suspicious Osascript Requesting Administrator Privileges (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.002AppleScript
Persistence
Priv Esc
- T1548.004Elevated Execution with Prompt
Defense Evasion
- T1548.004Elevated Execution with Prompt
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects osascript invoking do shell script with administrator privileges which the Cosmic Leopard macOS malware uses to prompt the victim for credentials and escalate to root. Abusing AppleScript to request an authentication dialog is a common macOS privilege escalation and social engineering technique.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.002 — drag to rearrange

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AppleScript do-shell-script Abuse via Osascript (via process_creation)

Suspicious AppleScript Payload Execution via osascript (macOS)

Suspicious AppleScript Execution Spawning a Shell via Osascript

Suspicious osascript Execution of Encoded AppleScript on macOS (via process_creation)

Suspicious Credential Prompt Phishing via osascript (via process_creation)

Malicious ClickFix Stager Piping curl Output to osascript

Suspicious Shell Execution Referencing Mounted DMG Volume via Terminal (macOS)

Suspicious osascript to zsh Executing Hidden Payload via Axios Compromise

Suspicious Osascript Requesting Administrator Privileges (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1059.002 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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